


The Dragon

by Jen425



Series: New Lights [1]
Category: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Power Rangers, Power Rangers Ninja Steel, Power Rangers Ninja Storm, Power Rangers Timeforce
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pre-Canon, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Angst, Gen, Going Green Comic, Introspection, Pre-Canon, Superheroes, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-02
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2020-02-15 19:21:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18675886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jen425/pseuds/Jen425
Summary: Even before he was the Green Ranger, Tommy Oliver was the Dragon. A superhero.But then…





	The Dragon

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the “Going Green” comic and Tommy’s insistence that he came to Angel Grove for a normal life, and he was totally ready to fight a monster as a civilian.
> 
> The only logical conclusion I could draw was ex superhero Tommy.
> 
> The only problem is that this then went massively AU. And now Tommy Oliver, Jen Scotts, Dane Romero, an OC, and [redacted] were childhood superhero friends.
> 
> (This is part of a larger AU and SW fusion (A Larger World) but the superhero aspect can be enjoyed standalone (New Lights))

His name is Tommy Oliver. And, before the Green Ranger was even imagined, everyone knew him as The Dragon.  
  
Here’s the thing. Not every hero has a cut and dry story. Tommy Oliver is one in the “Not” category.   
  
The Warriors, and their Four Cities, don’t give him the chance.   
  
Tommy Oliver has trained in martial arts practically all his life and wanted to help people just as long. He lived in the First City, whose real name matters little to him, anymore.   
  
And, when he was only 11 years old, he met Serpentman, one of the highest level Warriors, a founder.

 

When he was only 11 years old, he saved a superhero.

 

You know how this goes. Tommy Oliver is 11 years old. He’s skilled and he wants to help people.

 

The Dragon wears a green jacket with a gold dragon stitched on over a back kevlar suit. Unlike Serpentman, he has no powers but his own skills.

 

Tommy Oliver is 11 years old, and he is the first hero of his generation.

 

(In Angel Grove, far away, five children play. Another three train to become ninjas. Two more, across the world, are also both still innocents in the intergalactic battle of good vs evil. They are 12, and they have destinies… but they get to be children. Well, for now. One year. Two years. Three. Four. Too close, too young for what is to come.)

 

Others come later. Hawk comes with Phoenix on his first space mission. She’s a year older than Dragon, but she’s his best friend.

 

Her real name is Jenny Scotts. Tommy Oliver, the Power Ranger, will later find that a piece of hope he’d thought lost forever.

 

Tommy Oliver, The Dragon, who is a child and a hero, just thinks that he’s grateful she trusted him.

 

There are more. Lightspeed. Powerboy. Shade.

 

They get called the New Lights, during their team ups.

 

They’re also the first teen team. Started by Tommy Oliver. Fitting an ironic and, whether you ask a Ranger or a hero.

 

But they are not Rangers, with clear cut battles. They’re superheroes of a more traditional sort. An assortment of recurring villains. Deciding how to work with the law.

 

Powerboy, Dane has a public identity only, until two years after Tommy steps down from being a _Ranger_ while Shade technically doesn’t exist and refuses to reveal her name.

 

(That should make Tommy more distrustful than he is, but he will find out, one day.)

 

And yet, they are friends. They go on off world missions together. Have jokes. Stay at each others’ houses.

 

Train together.

 

Fight together.

 

One time they even make a joke yearbook. Tommy is voted most likely to become a career hero. Shade is most likely to change identities. Jenny is most likely to move to another planet. Chris is most likely to marry an alien which makes both himself and Dane blush.

 

(All of these will come true, in some way or another.)

 

They’re kids. They’re friends.

 

But, most of all, they’re heroes.

 

And Friendship, it seems, only hurts.

 

Not every threat to Earth requires Rangers, and so the Warriors of Light join together. Even the kids.

 

Lightspeed, no, right then he was just Chris, loses his powers for a time. Hawk, _Jenny_ , doesn’t come back, at all.

 

And Tommy? For the only time in what will become a life long career as a hero, he leaves. He hangs up the black kevlar and he rips apart the green jacket with the gold dragon.

 

Shade disappears like the ninja she is. Dane goes on a rampage that Tommy gets pulled out of retirement to help Lightspeed, and to help some new kid who replaced their Shade, the one who was his friend.

 

And he’s not bad, but he’s not her.

 

Through all of this, though, his parents don’t know. Nobody knows. They just know that Jenny and Shade and Chris and Dane stop coming over, and Tommy doesn’t want to talk to anyone.

 

He doesn’t know what they assume. Jenny lived in another of the Four Cities, and her name doesn’t make news as missing, so far away.

 

Shade was always mysterious.

 

Chris is still around, even if it hurts too much to talk to him. So is Dane

 

They move him away to Angel Grove, California, for a fresh start.

 

There are other heroes, here. Power Rangers, at that. It’s not Tommy’s battle, anymore. He decides to take this as a fresh start.

 

(But he packs his rebuilt suit, just in case.)

 

Naturally, he encounters a monster in days. Specialized acid for heroes with powers is… less surprising than it could be. It’s only happened to each of his friends about 15 times each. He remembers the time Jenny had…

 

No. No going there. Monster first. He can take it down just like any other brute strength villain, even without the suit he’d left at his house like an _idiot_.

 

Then the thing goes giant, and there’s that supervillain reading his mind. (Thank _god_ he knows how to shield his memories.)

 

Tommy really just wanted a normal life.

 

(He has no idea what is to come.)

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on Tumblr @flaim-ita


End file.
